British Holiday Chapter 12: Welcome to Islington

The day after Brighton we left the awful student flat and moved to another airbnb in Islington. It was much nicer. The place was nicer, the host was wonderful, and it was very near a waitrose.

It was also very near the arsenal stadium, but that didn't affect us until the next day.

How do people not make the "'Arsenal Football Club' contains 'arse'" joke more often?

Moving around from place to place has advantages. That nasty student flat only affected us for a couple days. But it also is exhausting. By this point in the trip we were getting pretty stinking tired. I think all we managed to do this day was a sit in the park back in Bloomsbury, the move, a walk down Holloway Road, and a trip to waitrose.

On our walk we stopped in a pub, I think it was The Bailey. It mostly for Arsenal fans, and as there wasn't a game on it was pretty empty. For some reason, London pubs were all about providing Thai food at the time (not sure if this is still the case). We got some. It was pure salty goodness. The Sharps Doom Bar cask ale was pretty good too.

Pub Thai

The best part, though, was the talk we had with the publican. He'd been stationed in washington state when he was in the military. Seemed a pretty nice guy. Seemed to know just how much chatting to do without being annoying. (this is a skill that I don't encounter very often in seattle. I miss it)

We stopped at waitrose on the way back. Got some more booze and some premade dinners. Of course, I picked fish pie, which I was then afraid to make because our host specifically asks all her guests to not stink the place up like fish.

St Peter's Organic Best Bitter

I asked about it and I got the whole story. One of her first airbnb visitors had pan fried some fish very 'hard' and the whole place stank for a week. My fish pie did not ruin our relationship. Which was nice. But stories like that reaffirm my commitment to not renting out a room on airbnb (also the cats would hate it).

And that was it. The whole day. Not very exciting, but we were still in London and that's what matters.